The Judas in Your Life

The Biblical percentages are such that one out of every twelve disciples is a Judas. On average, there is a Judas among every twelve people in the life of a real Christian. This being the case, it may be wise to limit your friends to eleven people. But really, the Judas problem exists, and it will never go away. It is one of those things we must be aware of, but keep on the back burner. Eleven out of twelve, on average, are on your side and will not betray you, and this must always be our focus.

The Lord knew the heart of Judas. He knew He had chosen “the son of perdition” as one of His original twelve. David prophesied of this man:

All who hate me whisper together against me; against me they devise my hurt, saying, “A wicked thing is poured out upon him, that when he lies down, he will not rise up again.” Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.[Psalm 41:7-9]

Yet Judas was in no way predestined to perform his dirty deed. He was not created to be a jerk. He chose to be a jerk. It seems that the other apostles did not suspect him. None of them knew who the traitor was at the Last Supper, for example. It is apparent that Judas hid himself very well.

He was the holder of the money bag. And he repeatedly stole from it. Imagine that. He was routinely stealing the money given for the work of God. The only one who knew this, apparently, was the Lord. Maybe the others did know it. Maybe they knew Judas was a thief but did not know he would be a traitor. There was something not quite right about this man. Each of the original apostles was messed up in some way. They each had their personality quirks and sin problems. Except for John, they all eventually ran off and/or denied the Lord after His arrest.

But they returned. Their hearts were right. They simply did not understand. They were afraid. But Judas was a betraying thief with his own agenda. He was not on the same page with the Lord or the others. He was listening to a different radio station. He was getting his information from a different source. At the time of the end, his increasingly cozy relationship with the devil himself caused the two to come into perfect union. It was a spiritual marriage. The devil entered into Judas and the two became one. Whoa.

It had been building for some time. At whatever point it commenced we do not know for sure, but Judas Iscariot had decided he would either take back his heart from the Lord or never give it fully to Him. It could be that he, like the others, could only perceive the popular notion of the Messiah as a conquering hero. He noticed early on that the Lord Jesus did not seem to fit this role. He thus held back his heart. The others thought the same thing generally, but gave their hearts to the Lord anyway. They overcame anything that might have held them back, and each of them sided with the Lord 100%. They still messed up from time to time, but their hearts were right.

Not so with Judas. And not so with any possible unknown Judas in your life. The Lord never advocated being suspicious of others, though. Suspicion and love do not go together. The best Scriptural advice concerning how to best approach this subject, straight from the Lord’s teachings, is probably the following:

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” [Matthew 10:16]

The Lord knew about Judas but carried the knowledge well. It takes a certain strength to do this, a great strength. He loved Judas to the very end and knew there was always hope on the one hand, but was aware of his eventual fate on the other. He never let this knowledge or the various actions of Judas affect His mission or relationship with others, however. He never even fought against the actions of Judas, but allowed them to play out as part of a plan. One solution to this is that it was already predetermined there must be a traitor, because Satan would counter the Lord’s ministry with betrayal. Under the devil’s overall tempting influence upon everyone close to the Lord, Judas Iscariot was the one who gave in to temptation and chose the role.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. [Romans 12:9-18][1]

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. ASV

Give me Wisdom and Discernment and an unwavering faith…
That You can help me see hearts as You see them and I might rightly identify the traitor lurking in my midst.

James 1:1-6
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion, greeting. 2 Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; 3 Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. 4 And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. ASV

Philippians 1:9
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; ASV

Judas, Judas….are you out there? Come out, Come out, where ever you are!

Oh, look here! I wasn’t following your blog when you posted this… but this post was listed under your name when I received notification that you “liked” my post… and what an excellent post this is! It truly takes my thoughts deeper. Thank you! You give such an wonderful exposition of Judas’ heart and actions. Lots of gems in this post…great depth. And “wise as serpents yet innocent as doves” is such a comforting and wise truth from our Lord…words to truly live by. Thank you again!

Thank you so much Lynn. This post was written back at the beginning, about 450 posts ago. I’m so glad it was a blessing to you. Glory to the Lord for all He has done and continues to do in our lives.

We often lose track of the Judas reality. All real Christians will have their Judas at any given time. In the Lord’s case it was a precursor to His death. But His death was necessary for His resurrection. We can see then that the Judas in our lives apparently shows up prior to the end of one thing and the new beginning of another. It is an attempt by the enemy, through someone who was otherwise a friend, to take us out and to stop, using traitorous means, whatever great thing the Lord is attempting to bring forth and birth in a person’s life. Sometimes a Judas does great damage. Whatever happens afterwards regarding the victim is most often dependent on his or her response. If one cannot pass the Judas test then one cannot go forward.

We must remember, for an illustrative example, that young David had to go through Goliath to reach his destiny. If he did not defeat the giant he never would have achieved the next step or any other step in the Lord’s will for his life.

This means our attitude regarding a Judas attack must be the same as the Lord’s. Though the pain of betrayal is there, and though a particular “death” follows, the important thing to remember is that there will soon follow a glorious resurrection if our attitude is right.